Owner: Shari's Gone Country URL:http://shari-thomas.blogspot.com Join Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:49:12 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Follow Shari around the farm as she tends to the horse, the sheep, and the chickens. She and three other women are creating a little farm in the middle of nowhere, SW Utah. Site statistics:Click here
I've been working, not just playing! 2007-10-02 16:59:00 Ok, I know... it's been way too long since I brought you up to date about things here at "The Four Country Gals"' little spread. I really do spend a fair amount of time "out and about" with the animals, and my roommates.With excellent weather this past weekend, we worked to get as much protection up for the horses as possible. Oh, we also spent time in training with both Dakota and Dusty.I'm working
with Dakota, who really believes she's a "pocket pony". While I love her to death, I'm really working to get her out of my personal "hoola hoop" space. It's gonna take a while, since she's a real lover. Together, we're working on "back" as well as "yield your hindquarters" correctly. That means pick up your inside hind foot and cross it over in front of your other hind foot.Cindy spent some real quality time with Dusty, and lo and behold... She actually got on him.All by herself, she saddled him, prepared him for weight with the "jump, jump, jump" and lay across his back. He was suc
Utah or Bust… through the Rockies! 2007-10-02 16:55:00 The Four Country Gals (at least two of them) are on their way from Ohio to Utah. They're pulling up stakes and moving to an as yet unseen house and acreage in rural SW Utah... the Escalante Desert Valley.read more | digg storyClick here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
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Yes! Small Town Living has published my article 2007-10-01 16:54:00 Over the weekend, Small
Town Living
, an online magazine dedicated to promoting a simpler life and small town America released their latest issue."Oh give me a home..." can be found on page 21 of this fantastic bi-monthly magazine.Just so you know I'm not the only one published
... you can learn how to grow winter squash... with enough to share with your neighbors. There's also some awesome recipes for Acorn Squash.Got bats in your belfry? You don't? Maybe you should. There's a whole article on the value of having some "local bats".If you've got the hankering to carve pumpkins, you'll find tips and ideas for creating that special face as well as ways to stay safe.Oh, and if you love the Appalachian Trail... then you really want to grab this issue.So, what is "Oh give me a home..." all about? I'd tell ya... but then you might get lazy and not click on the link to Small Town
Living.Click here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
With the Seniors to Bryce Canyon 2007-09-28 10:55:00 Yesterday was a long day. I went with the Senior Citizens from the Enterprise Senior Center to BryceCanyon
National Park.It was about 170 miles each way and took nearly three hours to get there. We had lunch at Ruby's Inn a delightful destination resort. They've been open since before Bryce Canyon was declared a National Park.All told, there were seven of us including Bev (my roommmate) and myself. She drove us to all the major "points" so we could get out and explore the sites. I'll get pictures posted within the week.Having left the house shortly after sunrise (before 8AM) we didn't arrive home again until shortly before sunset (7:30 PM).Click here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
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Water rights... stop the abuse of power 2007-09-27 09:00:00 This post is a personal opinion by a resident of Escalante Valley. It is also posted in conjuction with Bloggers' Unite, and effort to bring world-wide attention to abuse
of all kinds.I've done a little research on this issue of suddenly needing to restrict the use of water in Escalante Valley, Utah.In the state of Utah, water is public property, and to use it personally, you must purchase "water rights". Typically, they are sold by the acre-foot (325.8 thousand gallons). You purchase that right for a lifetime, to use annually.Over the years, the State Water Engineer has established water usage "duties" as well as the formulas determining how much water it takes to do certain activities, like irrigation. The duty for irrigation water in this valley is four acre-feet of water per acre of crop, no matter the crop, or the irrigation method.In our valley, the most prevalent crop is alfalfa. Corn and potatoes comprise less than 20% of total crop production. Also, of all the water used, le Read more:power
Results of the Local Water Users Meeting 2007-09-26 16:46:00 We (along with about 300 other local residents) attended a meeting presented by the Escalante Water Users Board. This is a group of large agricultural users who have been diligently working on a plan to stimulate water conservation and also to assist the state by developing a plan to re-purchase and retire "water rights" Seems that the largest issue surrounding the plan offered by the Water Users is that the Utah State Engineer, who is personally and solely in charge of administering Ground Water Management Plans, feels the plan is "woefully short" of goals set forth by the State Legislature.Basically, the state passed a Ground Water Management Law that says "The State Engineer may establish Ground Water Management Plans where necessary for conservation to reach a "safe usage level"... and that he shall consider any and all economic impact to the local water users.The Escalante Desert Valley sits atop an aquifer who's size has yet to be fully determined. We know that in the 1950's a Read more:Local
Water rights issues... stop the abuse 2007-09-24 14:21:00 Living here in the Escalante Desert Valley, we're always concerned about water, and "water rights". For the record, we officially have 1 acre-foot of water for our use. That means we can use up to 325851.428571 gallons of water per year.When I do the math, it figures out this way. Each day we can use up to 892.745 gallons of water. For the four of us and all our animals... that seems like a lot of water.Don't get me wrong, we're not the least bit interested in giving up any of our water rights. In fact, we'd like to purchase one additional acre-foot, but at a minimum asking price of over $5,000, it's not likely to happen in the near future.Now, I've done a little investigating (anyone can do this with access to the right links), and personally believe someone needs to really think through the formulas.For example here are the basic allowances for different kinds of livestock.cow or horse 0.028 acre-footsheep, goat, swine, moose, or elk Read more:abuse
Ate the 1st dozen eggs... sold the 2nd dozen eggs 2007-09-24 13:27:00 Saturday morning breakfast was a full dozen over easy eggs, fresh from our chickens. Our of the first dozen, we even had two "double yolkers". Haven't seen those since I was a kid.Add to the eggs, a big pile of hashbrown potatoes topped with homemade salsa verde and thick sliced bacon, toast with butter, and fresh ground "Creme Brulee" flavored coffee... and we were stoked for the day.Good thing, even though most of the day was rainy, as soon as it quit, we were out at the horse stable fixing up the new corral. It took us until just before dark to get the corral finished... way too late to move horses. Sunday, we put all three horses into the corral and showed them their own stalls. We locked Dakota (the yearling) into her stall just in case our gelding "Dusty" got a little too frisky. We gave Neche (four-year-old filly) the run of both her stall and the corral. She also had access to Dusty's stall if she dared.There was a little ear-pinning and teeth showing, but other than that, th
Shari's learnin' things about blogging... 2007-09-22 14:40:00 Ok, so I've been around for a long time... old dogs CAN learn new tricks, when the information is presented properly.I'm studying an e-book I got by way of a theme designer. Over at Four Country Gals, I chose to go with the WordPress script and upload it to my own server, rather than stay here at blogger. Besides looking for personal growth, I had an intuition I'd be able to drive traffic and attract attention more successfully with a unique domain, and hosting.First, here's a link to the book I found, complements of SK Design Studio. It's called WordPress Complete BookI've been learning about Technorati, and have now filled in my Technorati Profile. I know... I'm a little slow on the uptake... but hey... at least I'm learning and gaining an understanding.Click here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
Read more:things
When you want info... where do you go? 2007-09-17 11:58:00 Living here in the desert with a three other "city gals"... well, actually "island gals" from Put In Bay, Ohio, I often have to search for information either to support something I'm trying to explain to them, or to get my "thinking cap" cranked up.So, where do I go for information?One of the places I go is to a forum I found earlier this summer. It's a new forum, but is comprised of several very knowledgeable and helpful women around the world. We have members from several regions of the USA as well as Canada, and NZ.We all share a profound joy for life, and living simply, in harmony with our surroundings. Most of us have at least a garden to enjoy, and some of us have small farms. A few of us actually have enough land and produce to have market stores, or participate in Farmer's Markets.One of the things I really appreciate about this forum is the complete lack of "swaps, and barters", as well as no politics or talk of religion. There are plenty of forums for these activities, and
Around here, life is never dull 2007-09-14 11:49:00 After taking time yesterday to "recover" from a very late night, it's now Friday... and it looks like we'll be working on "indoor" projects most of the weekend. The weather forecast is calling for high winds today and tomorrow, with thunderstorms on Sunday. Can you tell our season is changing?Yesterday, I took the time to modify the chicken nest boxes a bit... just like in marketing, gotta find a need and fill it. In this case... I'm asking the pullets what they want for their nest boxes. I thought a nice fluffy warm sheep's wool lining would be comfy. Cindy says they're using shredded paper out at the farm and those girls love it.Well, this batch of hay we're using to feed the sheep is really ratty... It has rye heads and alfalfa roots, as well as pretty good-sized stems. They're really wasting a lot of it. Since straw isn't something readily available, I'm trying this hay in one box.Wouldn't ya know it... so far the first and only egg to land in a nest box, has landed in th
It's Wednesday, and I'm at the Senior Center 2007-09-12 10:39:00 Today is lunch at the Senior Center
... Shredded Beef Enchilada, so Bev figured I'd might as well come spend the morning and stay for lunch.Tonight, we're going on the Senior Citizen bus to St. George... to Tuachan, the big outdoor theater. Tonight's show is My Fair Lady, something I've never seen on stage.There are 13 of us going, and the Enterprise Senior Center Recreation Fund pays our way. That's the group I volunteer for (did the hamburgers in August). I'm sure we'll have loads of fun.Yesterday I got the picture gallery working at FourCountryGals.com, so you'll have to stop by. I'm loading virtually all the early pictures Bev and Cindy took as they moved from Ohio to Utah. Only a few make it into the main part of the book, but I've linked the actually gallery, so you can grab a lot more pictorial detail.UPDATE: At lunch, I was awarded the "Volunteer of the Month" Award for Washington County Council on Aging for my work on the "Corn Fest" fund raiser... cooking all the ham Read more:Wednesday
Another weekend of building projects... and a really scary crash 2007-09-09 21:15:00 The horse stable is taking shape. This weekend, we used virtually all the lumber we had left. Got the rest of the north and east walls up, as well as a "sag beam". That will allow the 12 foot span to have a resting point at about 8 1/2 foot.It'll be after the first of the month before we can buy the joists... 13 2x6x12 footers and a truck load of 8 foot 2x4s for the cross pieces. Then we'll have our work cut out for us! We're covering with both "obs" plywood and roof tin.While we were working on the stable, I heard a car coming east on the road bordering our south property line. I quickly determined things didn't sound quite right. My eyes confirmed what I heard as I saw an older Saturn approaching at a high rate of speed (close to 60 mph) and begin fish-tailing.Within just a second, it had slid off the shoulder and rolled over sideways, then end over end three more times.As it was airborne, I was hollering for Bev to head for the house and call 911. Cindy and I immediately jumped Read more:crash
Yahoo!! It's a brown egg! 2007-09-08 19:33:00 Yeppers! One of our pullets has laid her first egg.Only two disappointments... the egg wasn't laid in the nice wool lined nest boxes and Mom (these are her chickens) didn't find it. I did.That's ok, 'cause we went and got both her and the camera, leaving the egg in it's place for her to see, and then handing it carefully to her.Now you, too can see our first little pullet egg.These gals were born on April 23, so that makes them just a couple days shy of 19 weeks. Now, what we don't know is "who done it".Click here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
Read more:Yahoo
Dakota starts her training... 2007-09-07 13:59:00 Or is that Shari starts her training to train Dakota
.It's important I get this right. With Dakota being a yearling, she needs to learn respect and grow out of her "pocket pet" attitude.Now, I'll be the first to admit losing 80 or so pounds would be good for me. You should see me huff and puff my way around the farm.Actually, I'm getting better. At least I don't completely run out of air before I get the daily chores done.But, working a horse in our round pen, is a lot more work. The ground is very soft sand, and is quite uneven as the horses sink halfway up their hooves. That leaves big divots to navigate... that and the road apples they drop.Dakota's first lesson yesterday was to accept the "stick and string". She'd been trained to voice and whistle. However, I prefer to point, "cluck", and then hit the ground with the stick and string. That's the method taught by Clinton Anderson of Downunder Horsemanship.She did very well, letting me rub her all over with the stick and strin
Holiday? What holiday! 2007-09-04 13:56:00 Whew! Now things can get back to a more leisurely pace. You see, this last holiday weekend, was really one big "work party".Thursday afternoon, Bev, Mom and I made a trip into Cedar City for lumber, chicken feed, and a few groceries. By the time we were done... the first paycheck was history. The lumber we bought cost just over $400 and that is about half what we need.A couple weeks ago, Clyde, another neighbor of ours had come over and spent some "tractor time". The first day, he leveled the new corral area and we removed the east wall from Dusty's stable/stall area.A few days later, he returned with a great big auger (12 inches). So much for Bev and I continuing to dig post holes by hand. The only trick with his big auger on the tractor was that we had to really lean hard on it to get it to dig a hole straight down. Ya' don't want no crooked posts when you're building stuff, ya' know.So, now we have all the posts we need, and enough lumber to frame in the roof line (we think).M
Four Country Gals... the story of our homesteading experience 2007-08-31 11:02:00 Just launched... a new blog, which is a "reality blog book".I've been asked 1000's of times, just how did the four of us decide to move to the SW Utah Escalante Desert Valley.Now you can join along as I write the full story
at "Four Country
Gals". I cover way more there than what I do here on this blog, or what Cindy covers on her blog at Country Musings.This new project serves as inspiration to those of you who are searching for ways to re-invent your lives. Our message is "Never give up! When you plan, and things don't go quite according to plan, make adjustments and keep moving forward."Be sure to subscribe to the feed, so you'll get the latest updates.I'll be continuing this blog, and eventually some of the stories will overlap a bit. Take heart though, there'll be far more detail in the "Four Country Gals" than there is in this blog.Click here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
Read more:experience
Dusty, Neche, and Dakota makes three! 2007-08-29 12:52:00 Imagine our surprise when Dixie, our neighbor asked if we'd take Dakota
, her yearling paint filly.We'd known since she put her place up for sale there was an "outside chance" we'd get one of the horses... but we never, ever thought it would be Dakota. This is her very favorite little filly.I hadn't gotten here yet when Dakota was born, but Bev and Cindy were at Dixie's within a few days of her birth.Her daddy, "Sailor" is a full Quarter Horse paint, and her momma is 1/2 Quarter Horse, 1/4 Saddle Bred, and 1/4 Appaloosa. So that makes
Dakota a whole lot more Quarter Horse.The pictures below start with daddy, and then momma and baby, taken last year in late May.Yesterday afternoon, Dixie stopped by and asked us to come over later. We hadn't told Mom, yet, that we're getting another horse.At dinner, Mom inquired as to what Dixie wanted with us at her place... Well, let's just say Mom thinks we're "babysitting" for a while, a long while.The plan was to "pony" Dakota off the back o Read more:Dusty
Roosters to the freezer! 2007-08-28 15:58:00 Mom's dream has come true! She has her very own hand-raised, fresh chickens in the freezer.When we were building the coop and ordering the birds, besides wanting fresh brown eggs, she told me she really looked forward to "good, old-fashioned chicken" she could bake. She's so tired of the fatty, pale, tasteless store-bought stuff.Sunday, Cindy and James (the neighbor boy) and I dispatched 11 cockerels (young roosters) to the freezer.Saturday at dusk, Cindy and I selected and captured the "roo's", placing them in a holding pen. With only water, and no feed, they'd be much less messy to butcher. Since our "butchering station" is pretty primitive, we thought it better to skin the birds and simply cut away the best parts (each wing, both boneless breasts, and the leg/thigh) and discard the rest this year.It took about 20 minutes per bird from start to finish. James was in charge of keeping us in ice water, and running the finished birds into Mom, so she could do a final wash, pat dry an
Corn Fest! Hot hamburgers, right off the grill... 2007-08-26 12:43:00 That was fun!I got to be "the griller"... did burgers and dogs on the grill for about 120 folks who stopped by the Enterprise Senior Center, where we did our part to get folks fed at the annual Enterprise Corn Fest.It was way hot... I was in the sun for about 7 hours. Thought I'd melt into a puddle. But oh, those burgers... they were perfect! We had 1/4 pounders. I put them on the grill (pretty high heat), and then seasoned them lightly with "California Blend" Garlic Salt. Turned them once when the juices started to rise. Seasoned them one more time and waited for the juices to run clean. Popped them onto a plate and into the kitchen, where they awaited an order.The dogs were slowly simmered in a pan of hot water and then "striped" on the grill half dozen at a time. They had that great grill flavor, but never dried out on the steam line while they awaited an order.All in all, I did 116 burgers and 24 dogs.By the end of the day, my get up and go was out looking for anyone else's get a
Sheep get some shade today 2007-08-23 16:06:00 If it's Thursday, it must be time to build something.Today, it's a shelter for our sheep. You see, we've been using a couple of old "pivot wheel" shipping boxes. One for all the girls, and one for Al. That's just not enough room.I talked Bev into enlarging the girls (and lambs) shelter by another 8 x 8 feet. That should give them plenty of room for shade and shelter when the cold weather comes, especially the snow.We got it about half done... that means half the roof and one side. When we're done, it will have a full roof and three and 1/2 sides. That should also keep the sheep a lot cleaner, as they can escape the sand storms, too.I'll get pictures when we get it finished.Click here! Vote for me to win the "Blog for a Year" contest!
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Cooking dinner tonight, and probably tomorrow, too 2007-08-22 13:00:00 Now, how did I wrangle that?You know, the kitchen is "Mom's Domain". Rarely do we girls ever intervene.I'm on a mission. You see, we have 12 cockerels (young roosters) who really need to get from the chicken coop to our freezer. Only one small problem. All three of the freezer areas are chock full of stuff.No offense to Mom, but she's just not real keen on getting things out of the freezers and on to our plates. That takes planning, and more effort than she's up to.We always complicate the freezer issue when Bev does the shopping, bringing home multiples of things. After all, when you live in the "middle of nowhere" you don't just run to the corner grocery on a whim.One more complicating thing is the monthly food drop. Both Mom and I qualify based on age and income, so we get double of everything. Sometimes we get whole cases of frozen stuff, like Simplot Fire-roasted Onions and Mushrooms. That's what we got last month... a case (8-3lb pkgs). Oh boy... and neither Cindy or Bev e Read more:tomorrow
Fall is in the air... time to shift gears 2007-08-21 15:02:00 This morning we woke to temperatures in the mid 40's. That's a sure sign that our first frost isn't far behind. Average first frost comes anytime now, as the old-timers talk of August frosts that leave the tomatoes green and corn not yet ripe.In 2005 the first frost came August 30 and in 2006, it came close on Aug 28 and finally got us in mid-September.Bev and I got the sheep feeder moved, and the panels removed. Tonight, the sheep (and I) should both be much happier. They'll be able to reach their food, and I won't get alfalfa leaves in places unmentionable.You can see in this first photo how we placed the feeder between two fence panels on an east/west line. Once we placed the wire panels, it was like a wind tunnel. The wind blows primarily from the south or west for most of the year, and with the hay laying on top of the panels... it was at the mercy of the wind.We've moved the feeder adjacent to the gate and on more of a north/south line. Removing the panels will let the she
Sheep Feeder Issues... 2007-08-20 12:37:00 Ya' know, we built this new sheep feeder a couple weeks ago. Last week we got the final parts (a couple of 4x4 screen panels) which are designed to limit how far into the hay the sheep can get their heads.Well, after using it for a week, the sheep are still pretty pissed off. Seems we humans may not have ordered the right panels. When you're a rookie at things, you can easily make mistakes just because you don't have anything to compare. Nothing provides a good education like a mistake... call it the "education process of learning by doing, and doing again in a different manner".Yesterday, we had a dust/windstorm with sustained winds in excess of 30mph. Now, I thought turning the feeder due E/W so the sheep would have their backs to our "normal" southerly winds made good sense. It did, until this silly farmer had to fork the hay into the feeder from the north side. I had alfalfa leaves in places no woman should ever have alfalfa!The sheep are so pissed at me, they keep going over to Read more:Sheep
, Issues
A little off-topic... Hurricane Dean has my attention 2007-08-20 12:21:00 Way back in 1998, I had the great pleasure of spending Christmas and New Years at Paamul aka Paa Mul, in Quintana Roo, Mexico. This incredibly beautiful little
park is about 60 km or so south of Cancun.My best friend's brother and sister wintered there for years and had a "palapa" where they would park their huge diesel pusher motorhome from around the end of September until early April each year.We found a way to serve as her mother and father's caregivers (push them through the airports in wheelchairs as necessary) and got to fly at substantially reduced rates in 1st Class to Cancun. I also was the "designated driver" of our van once we reached Cancun and headed south to Paamul.What a time we had! I'd never been to Mexico, let alone the Mexican Riviera. The weather was absolutely perfect, not even a breeze coming in from the Caribbean.While brother and sister stayed in their motorhome, we had rented a couple of condo's about a quarter-mile hike down the beach. Our place was perch Read more:topic
, attention
One more "to do" project DONE! 2007-10-11 11:16:00 Yeah, I know... it's been nearly a week since I last posted.Here's why... another one of those simple, "dig a trench, lay a water line, cover it up" and you're done projects.First, to bring you up to date... we didn't get any snow over the weekend, but it was pretty cold on Saturday. We pretty much "hid out" inside that day. I guess you could say we kind of took most of the day off, with both football and baseball games on the TV.Sunday was more of the "get ready for winter" stuff, and that included work on the compost pile. Bev and I spent about three hours cleaning the horse pen and stalls so we'd have hot, fresh manure to add to the compost pile. When the wind came up, we declared ourselves done for the day.Monday, I hand cut cucumbers, onions, tomatillos, green tomatos and sweet red peppers so we could can "sweet relish". Got enough for nearly 8 quarts. Yes, we can our relish by the quart since we use it so much. We managed to get the first 4 quarts done before running out of
It's October, and we're expecting SNOW! 2007-10-05 12:07:00 Here it is, the first Friday in October
, and we have a 50% chance of snow tonight. Needless to say, we've been putting things away, cleaning up the garden area, and adding both manure and mulch to protect the soil.Yesterday brought high winds and a dust storm. I was out in it, feeding and watering the animals. You could chew the air, it was so gritty. We've had a little wind damage, which we'll repair this evening shortly before dark. The wind is forecasted to lay down a bit, and that will make it easier to put plywood panels back in place on the stable.Tomorrow, we have to head down to the Beryl Community Center and sign up for our "care and share" boxes tomorrow. Because we're considered "low income", we get a couple of monthly food "drops". Between them and the meals from the Enterprise Senior Center, we're able to keep the food bill to a reasonable level.Cindy will be out of work in about three weeks, so we really have to wrap up all the projects (at least the ones that cost m
This blog has moved! 2007-10-16 11:48:00 Hello folks,The more things change, the more they stay the same... this blog has a new address. I've moved all the entries (but not the comments) to a new script at "Shari's Gone Country"For those of you who are curious... here's why I've moved.I needed to update the content on that domain. I've owned that domain for nearly 7 years, now, and it gets a fair amount of traffic.I felt the need to promote "my own stuff" and get my own "page ranking" etc.I had the extra server space, and now have much better control. I can do what I want with my blog, without having to worry about someone else's TOS. (Not that I would ever get that squirelly).I've been exploring WordPress and am liking the things I find. Call it part of my growth process.With that said, you'll find a "new look" and in a short time, even more photo options. I'm still getting the photo gallery working correctly (tech issues with the web host that are in the works).So, join me at http://sharithomas.com ... aka Shari's
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